12 Golf Inc. May/June 2015have,” he said. “A big part of it has to dowith the exposure of the Tour cominghere.”The LPGA Symetra Tour Island ResortChampionship also created increased vis-ibility for the course and the entire Mid-west. When it was first held at SweetgrassGolf Club in 2008, it was the only profes-sional golf event in Michigan that year.This year, the Tour is making several stopsin the region.

“The whole colony only has about35,000 people,” Douglas said. “It’s a rarityfor the area to have something like this.”So he knew he had to make it stick.Sweetgrass Golf Club asked local schools,sports teams and nonprofit organizationsto help sell tickets, and it let the organi-zations keep the money. And rather thangiving the already-sponsored tournamentplayers gift bags with balls and gear, eachplayer receives 100 two-dollar bills.

“Travel expenses are their biggest con-cern,” he said. “We decided on two-dollarbills so the community can actually seethat the girls are putting money back intothe community.”Palouse Ridge Golf Club GeneralManager Todd Lupkes also understandsthe tests that come with operating a golfcourse in a small town. But Pullman,Wash., also happens to be a college town.

“If you look at the signs in town, it
says the population is 32,000 people, but

22,000 are students,” Lupkes said. “It’ssuch a small community to beginwith. People’s perception abouthow much fun they had at the golfcourse or the food they had — allthose little things — gets around thecommunity really quickly.”In the city of Pullman, PalouseRidge Golf Club stands alone. Be-fore Washington State Universitybuilt the 18-hole championship golfcourse in 2008, the city of Pullmanhad one 9-hole course that was un-prepared to host events.

“If WSU alumni wanted to dosomething, they had to go some-where else like Spokane or Seattle,”Lupkes said. “Now that moneycomes to Pullman.”The course is hosting a lot of tourna-ments, so much so that Lupkes simplycan’t accommodate all events.

The university-owned course was built
to host high-end prestigious events. That
goal can be checked off the list as Palouse
Ridge Golf Club hosted the Men’s Golf
Pac-12 Championship in April.

“It’s essentially set up like a mini U.S.Open,” Lupkes said. “The course is play-ing firm, fast and with really thick, longrough. The regulars are eating it up.”Of the 60 golfers playing on 12, five-person teams, at least 15 are top 100 ama-teur players worldwide, Lupkes said. Thisalong with other tournaments such as theJohn Harbottle III Pro AM, a U.S. Ama-teur Qualifier, and the CourseCo Cham-pionship, have helped attract a spectrumof golfers, rather than just students.

“Bringing those events to Pullmanbrings a lot of prestige and pride,” Lupkessaid. “Of our 20,000 to 22,000 annualrounds, student play is only about 7 or 8percent.”Its management company, CourseCo,has made hosting larger events feasible.“If I were to call Nike and say ‘I need120 backpacks donated for a tournament,’they’d say ‘Who are you?,’” he said. “Butwhen CourseCo calls, they say, ‘Sure.’That’s the difference.”Randolph Golf Complex hopes a tour-nament will save it. The Tucson golf facil-ity is facing community efforts to expandnearby Reid Park by converting part of thegolf course into shared-use space.

Locals’ visions of creating Tucson’s
“Central Park,” at the expense of the golf
course, have pushed General Manager
Robb Palmgren to do everything he can
to showcase the course’s positive contributions to the city.

“What we have to do first is change peo-ple’s perception of the course,” Palmgrensaid. “We want it to be a positive reflection[of the city of Tucson).”Step one was fixing up the courses, aneffort that started when the city steppeddown as operator and hired OB Sports torun its five golf facilities in February 2014.

“OB Sports came in and started cleaning up the courses, adding brand new golf
carts, repainting the buildings and providing better customer service,” Palmgren
said.

Step two was ramping up Tucson City
Golf’s 2015 men’s amateur tour, held over
two weekends in April and May.

“The Tucson City amateur tournament
[provided the perfect stage] to prove to
the Tucson community that the courses
are back and better than ever,” Palmgren
said.

The tournament attracted 120 entries
this year, the most ever.

“In the past, the entry fee didn’t reallygive players anything besides getting toplay,” Palmgren said. “Now they get foodeach day, a gift card for signing up and aluncheon at Randolph. We changed it tooffer more with each entry and [with allof the improvements], we can charge a bitmore as it’s a much better value.”Is it enough to save Randolph GolfComplex? Only time and local politicswill tell.

Sweetgrass Golf Club asked nonprofit
organizations and local schools to sell
tickets and allowed them to keep all of
the proceeds.